UN Implores World Leaders to Pledge Aid to Syria

World leaders from Western and Arab nations pledged $2.4 billion dollars to relieve the suffering of Syrian civilians on Wednesday, January 15, as Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary General outlined the desperate need for aid.

“Half the total Syrian population, nearly 9.3 million individuals, urgently need humanitarian aid,” Mr. Ban said at the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference on Syria. “Nearly half of them are children.”

“The attacks on civilians and homes are unrelenting,” Mr. Ban said. “I am especially concerned that the sides are using violence against women and girls to degrade and dehumanize their opponents.”

Mr. Ban called for an immediate end to the abuses that characterize the nearly three-year-old Syrian conflict that he said is damaging regional economies and undermining the country’s prospects for the future.

The pledges of aid from around the world, though significant, do not even amount to half of the $6.5 billion that Mr. Ban estimated is needed to provide food, water, shelter and medical care to Syrian refugees and civilians inside the country.

“Humanitarian aid,” Mr. Ban said, “is the difference between life and death, hope and despair.”

Relieving the cold, pain, hunger and thirst of Syrian refugees and civilians cannot be accomplished by nations alone. Each of us can and must help if our brothers and sisters who have lost everything in the Syrian conflict are to live to see their country at peace once again. Play your part by donating to Syrian relief today.